A long vacant gas station in Jamaica Plain is now, on weekends, a place where adults drink beer and buy art, children run in circles, and local vendors serve up food.
It was a sad place that is now happy. That was Christina Stamatos’s goal.
Stamatos (pictured in her Instagram post above), who grew up in Foxborough, launched Making Sad Things Happy after she was laid off from an interior design job in New York in 2020. She moved back to Massachusetts and started a feel-good project, turning sad concepts and items into artful designs that are much happier. At first, it was a basketball that became a planter.
“I posted it on social media, and I had like 30 people reach out wanting one,” she said.
She expanded her idea into a line of handmade rugs with cheeky messages, and sweat suits, which she customizes for buyers.
“I do a lot of like wedding pieces,” she said. “if it’s like a destination wedding, I’ll make their like airport outfit.”
After some success, Stamatos began hosting popups for her brand around town. The next step was to make the concept a destination.
An obvious sad place that could be happy was a shuttered gas station in Jamaica Plain (the former JP Gas), which had been sitting there, walled out, waiting to become something new.
Stamatos and Hyde Park’s Roundhead Brewing teamed up to turn the space into a hangout spot. With inspiration from The Station near Fenway, another gas station turned beer garden, they painted, put out picnic tables, got permits, and opened — all within weeks. The former station store is now Stamatos’s studio, where she works on her own. She sells her rugs, sweat shirts, stickers, and other treats in front during the weekend activities.
The spot is open Fridays from 3 to 8 p.m. and Saturdays noon to 8 p.m., with plans to stay open through September. The GPS address: 561 Centre St. Stamatos has brought in food vendors who sell hot food outside; Alex’s Chimis is set to be there this weekend.
The place hasn’t needed much marketing, she said. Locals spotted the new paint and a Making Sad Things Happy sign and were already curious. When the spot opened on May 1, it was gorgeous out — and packed within hours.
Craig Panzer, cofounder of Roundhead Brewing, said the gas station setting turns out to be ideal — and part of the experience. He said his own brewing company’s spot in Hyde Park took an industrial location with dump trucks out front and made it something fun.
“The gas station is a beautiful place to sit. It has cover. It absorbs the sun — it’s great for that. It was an eyesore because it was like a dead spot,“ he said. ”But put some greenery on some fence and bring beautiful people inside. That’s the missing part. [It’s about] using spaces and leveraging the beauty they hold for the events you want to make, in contrast with like demo-ing it down and going shiny new from top to bottom."
Meredith Goldstein can be reached at Meredith.Goldstein@Globe.com.